West Michigan Whitecaps announce improvements to Fifth Third Ballpark after fire

COMSTOCK PARK, MI – The Jan. 3 fire at Fifth Third Ballpark has provided West Michigan Whitecaps’ ownership an opportunity to make changes to the 21-year-old stadium.

The club on Wednesday provided details on improvements and changes planned for this year and next, highlighted by a larger, relocated souvenir shop, a new administrative building with rooftop grill deck and an expanded home clubhouse.

“If there is one silver lining from the unfortunate occurrence of the fire,” said co-owner Lew Chamberlin, “it is that it allowed us to look at these projects now, at least the ones with the highest priority, and accomplish them with a lot more efficiency if we had taken them on by themselves later on.”

The Whitecaps open the season April 3 at Dayton, and the home opener is April 8 against Wisconsin. The team has said the first-base side, which sustained heavy damage from the fire, will be open and under roof for the first home game. That includes a main concession stand and restroom. There also will be portable concession stands.

The fire destroyed nine suites along the first-base side along with the home clubhouse and most of the concourse. Smoke damage required extensive interior work to the suites along the third-base side. Those will be ready when the season opens, Chamberlin said.

Chamberlin, who co-owns the team with Denny Baxter, did not give a cost for the projects. He said insurance settlements have not been completed. But he said “the timing was right,” by avoiding demolition costs already essentially accomplished by the fire.

“That’s actually a significant cost we would otherwise incur,” he said. “It was a certainly a big consideration.”

The façade to the park will look virtually the same on opening day, Chamberlin said.

A noticeable change will be the placement of a souvenir shop behind home plate, where the administrative offices were previously located. Called “CapsSized,” it will be about three times larger than the previous location along the third-base concourse, and feature entry points inside and outside the stadium. Advanced ticket sales also will be housed inside the shop.

By 2015, the Whitecaps plan to open a craft brew bar area when the previous souvenir shop was located.

Ticket information

The ticket office at the ballpark will open for ticket sales April 5. Tickets can be purchased by calling the Whitecaps front office at 616-784-4131, by visiting www.whitecapsbaseball.com, or in person at the temporary administrative offices located two miles north of the ballpark at 5716 West River Drive NE in Belmont, at the White Pine Trail overpass.

The Whitecaps’ staff, currently located off-site in a rented office near the park, will move into a new stadium building for the 2015 season, Chamberlin said. It is planned for down the right-field line between the first base grill and the playground, and will feature a rooftop grill available for fan rental with a view overlooking the field.

“Repurposing our current office (into a souvenir shot) and creating a new administration building in the fall that will also bring in revenue stream with deck on top was probably the highest priority for us,” Chamberlin said.

The first-base side suites will not be ready for the opener, but Chamberlin expects them to be completed by June 17 when the Whitecaps host the 50th Midwest League all-star game. When opened, they will be wider and taller, and feature a “supersuite” at the end with a capacity to host 75 people.

The Whitecaps are working with Progressive AE and Wolverine Building on the renovations and construction, which began shortly after the fire.

The Whitecaps previously said they would use the third-base dugout and clubhouse to start the season. Temporary trailers with showers will be housed outside the center-field parking lot for visitors and umpires.

The new clubhouse is expected to be completed May 1, vice president Jim Jarecki said, which would have the Whitecaps back along the first-base dugout for a six-game homestand beginning May 5.

The clubhouse, Chamberlin said, will have a weight room (previously it was a converted storage room) with a larger locker room and adjoining offices for the manager and coaches.